upend
Americanverb (used with object)
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to set on end, as a barrel or ship.
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to affect drastically or radically, as tastes, opinions, reputations, or systems.
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to defeat in competition, as in boxing or business.
verb (used without object)
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to become upended.
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to place the body back-end up, as a dabbling duck.
verb
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to turn or set or become turned or set on end
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(tr) to affect or upset drastically
Etymology
Origin of upend
Explanation
When you upend something, you flip it over or tip it on one side. Tell your sister you won't play checkers with her anymore if she continues to upend the board angrily every time she loses. To move the table from one room to another, you might have to upend it so it'll fit through the door, resting it on one end. The other way to upend something is to invert it, or turn it onto the opposite side, the way you upend a bottle of root beer over a glass or upend your school bag and shake the contents onto your bed to find that lost pack of gum.
Vocabulary lists containing upend
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
More broadly, the misery for software and cybersecurity stocks, which have been laggards all year due to concerns about how AI could upend those industries, continued Wednesday.
From Barron's • May 27, 2026
It’s a question of what do we do about these smaller disasters that can still upend people’s lives, can still cause millions of dollars of damage that states have to deal with, but aren’t catastrophes.
From Slate • May 21, 2026
Little has changed for buyers and sellers, despite rules introduced in 2024 designed to finally upend the traditional 6% real-estate commission model.
From MarketWatch • May 19, 2026
If even one of those remedies is granted, it could upend the company and the rest of the artificial-intelligence industry with it.
From The Wall Street Journal • May 6, 2026
In a moment, she might decide to upend the raft and send both her and Max tumbling into the water.
From "The School for Whatnots" by Margaret Peterson Haddix
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
